Week 8 Assignment

“How does the Sierra Club use its website to represent their traditional areas of focus, like environmental conservation, while also devoting focus to contemporary issues like fossil fuels and climate change?”

Analysis: 

The home page of the Sierra Club website is headed with a large picture of the Sierra Valley, with the phrase “Explore, Enjoy, and Protect the Planet” in large type next to the Sierra Club logo. This is a great representation of what the club's intentions and purposes are, which has been around for over a 100 years, and was founded on the principle of environmental conservation by its legendary figure head John Muir. Muir was inspired to save and maintain the Sierra Valley which he cherished so much, and so naturally, it makes sense to highlight this classic aspect of the club. But this non-profit organization is one of the largest in the United States, and so has moved beyond focusing on just environmental conservation, but turning focus also to contemporary issues such as climate change and fossil fuels. So, how does the club use the digital presence created by their website to not only communicate their traditional principles, but also to engage in contemporary issues?

While the Sierra Valley picture is a dominant figure upon initial arrival to the site, below the picture is a set of 5 tabs of links to main areas of the site. These are the main links for the site, and the first three tabs follow as such: Move Beyond Fossil Fuels, Preserve our Wild America, and Enjoy the Outdoors. These seem to exemplify the most significant focuses of the Club, and combine the traditional aspects with the modern. In 2011, the Sierra Club launched its 'move beyond coal' campaign, and upon clicking the Move Beyond Fossil Fuels link, the user is taken to a page with extensive information on the topic. This is the first tab, reading from left to right, and the following tab, Preserve our Wild America, focuses on the Club's traditional efforts, and how they are continuing this tradition. We could imagine that this order is intentional, as the fossil fuel campaign represents the contemporary focus, and the preservation tab represents that continued principle of conservation.

The Club has developed its efforts significantly since its conception, and this can be seen in the structure of their website. While it does give focus to traditional principles, the Club has developed into an organization that not only works to raise awareness, but also to create an identity and a lifestyle. To the left of the Sierra Valley picture, there is a roaming tool bar that has links to social media sites. Scrolling just below the picture and main toolbar there are sub-tool bars, such as Act Now, What's Happening, and Go Local. The Club puts extensive effort towards getting people informed, motivated, and engaged, and their site represents this.

Reflection:

Moving forward, my main goal is to gain more perspective into the Club's methods by conducting more extensive research, both explained by the Club's website but also through outside sources. I think a more advanced knowledge of the Club's historical efforts as well as what they are doing today will allow me to more successfully analyze their web page and how it is structured in such a way that relates to my research question.